<p>So I am applying to a lot of ivies, and schools like BU NYu and those kind of ranked schools. I'm applying to like 15 to 20. I have a feeling all of the schools I really want to go to I'm going to get denied. I may have a chance at NYU and I also had my heart set on it. However, recently I've been really looking into it andthey have a really biased gender distribution on campus. With more women then men, and I heard the dating scene there is difficult. I come from a small town and school. I only have 900 kids in my entire high school. So I'm looking for a large campus. I don't want to always see the same people. I do want the nice college Campus feeling.Which brings me to my second point which is liberal arts. I heard liberal arts collleges are good for undergrad and you learn more. As opposed to national universities where the professors focus on graduate school. I have three educational plans, either doctor, lawyer or PHd so where ever I'm going i am going go graduate school no matter what. If I chose liberal, they dont specialize in science. If I chose history it may better for liberal? Idk how I would be in auditorium sizes classes. I just dont want to go to a small school. The other thing with liberals is I heard the top ones are filled with rich prep school kids.
I feel I'm back to square one looking through colleges. Any suggestions between national, liberal arts and small vs large schools?</p>
<p>You can do science at a liberal arts college. Many LACs are great for pre-med.</p>
<p>Where to start …</p>
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<p>Are you going to college primarily to get a good education or to do the dating scene?</p>
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<p>A generalization; talk to people who went to LACs, they will say that’s true. Talk to people who went to large universities, they’ll deny it. Take your pick.</p>
<p>I think it’s fair to say that at LACs, you do have the opportunity for more interaction with professors. OTOH, universities often have the breadth of offerings that LACs can’t match. Again, take your pick.</p>
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<p>Many LACs have excellent science programs.</p>
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<p>Many universities have excellent history departments.</p>
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<p>You’re probably putting yourself between a rock and a hard place. It’s a trade-off, I’m afraid.</p>
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<p>Some no doubt are. So what? There are rich prep school kids who are genuinely nice people, in spite of the stereotypes. And I’m guessing the Ivies you’re interested in have a significant percentage of rich prep school kids.</p>
<p>You make good points. I feel like I should be applying to liberal arts schools because I don’t know what I want to do and I like a little bit of everything. I just feel that at a university there will be more opportunities available.</p>
<p>There are lots of opportunities at liberal arts schools. They are great places to try stuff out and figure out what you want to do. You can also do that at a university, of course.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, a university will have more in-depth courses in more fields than will the typical LAC, and a university is more likely to offer courses in the less-popular majors than a LAC. For example, if you want to major in linguistics, there are very few LACs where you could do this.</p>
<p>But many (maybe most) LACs do have in-depth courses that rival a university’s in a few fields, the fields where that LAC has chosen to make its mark. One example: Beloit College in Wisconsin offers more languages, and at least as many in-depth language courses, as many small and mid-sized universities. Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania has (not surprisingly) a world-class history department with several nationally known scholars on the faculty.</p>
<p>If you plan to do graduate study in a particular field, and in particular if you are entering college with advanced standing in that field, you may find a university that allows undergraduates to take graduate-level courses in the field; LACs can’t do this. On the other hand, at an LAC with a strong (for example) biology department, your first-year biology course might well be a class of 20 or 30 students, taught by a senior faculty member, whereas at a large university, it’s likely to be a large lecture class with labs supervised by graduate students.</p>
<p>In short, in my opinion, there’s no answer to: “Is a university or a liberal arts college better.” It depends on the individual student and his or her needs - and in most cases, again in my opinion, it probably really does not much matter.</p>
<p>In your case, where you have no idea what you want to do (and that’s perfectly fine, IMO), I could make an argument either way: the university will have more options to explore, the LAC will give you an opportunity to interact more closely with senior faculty members who can counsel you about specific fields.</p>
<p>My own bias, just to clear the air, is for the liberal arts college; to me there’s an advantage in working more closely with senior professors than is possible at most universities, at least in the first couple of years. But again, that’s strictly my bias.</p>
<p>FWIW, my D is a rising senior, and she’s looking at mega-universities, smaller universities, and LACs. I’m only insisting that she look at all three; whichever she chooses to attend, she’ll have my support.</p>